Behold, the Tram Tower!

The angled whitish bit you see in the picture is the lower half of portland's exciting new aerial tram tower. Over the next few weeks it's supposed to get a little over twice as tall as it is now, and then sprout cables from the top some time in August.

Updated 6/22/06: The second segment just went up, and I've got a photo of it here.

Parts of the South Waterfront district are now open for people to go and wander around in, which I did a couple of weeks back. I've been meaning to post some of the photos but (like today's Washington Park post) I just didn't get around to it until now. So here we are. As usual, clicking on any photo will take you to a larger version:


Two pics of the twin Meriwether condo towers. The whole area's still a construction site, but people are already living in the finished parts of these buildings. The city's promising a public pedestrian walkway next to the river for the full length of the South Waterfront district, sometime in the near future, but that part's still closed off so far. In the second photo you can also see OHSU's new clinic building, and the lower tram station directly in front of it, plus the Zidell Marine barge factory in the foreground. The barge factory is supposed to go away sometime soon, to make way for more condos. This absolutely must happen ASAP, because people who actually make things are icky and non-upscale, and need to be shooed away so they don't alarm the idle rich (and their darling weimaraners). Your tax dollars at work.



Two photos of OHSU's new clinic building. The early PR led us all to think this was going to be a new advanced research facility, but no, instead it's going to house yoga studios and day spas and such, catering to affluent and otherwise healthy aging boomers. Because that's far more profitable than treating actual sick people, and that's the only thing that matters anymore.

The construction in the right foreground of the first pic is for a new city park spanning two blocks. There used to be a mini storage facility here, until the city decided it ought to be a park instead and forced the existing business out. More of your tax dollars at work.


The John Ross condo tower, which is supposed to top out somewhere over 30 stories when complete. This is the same building you see in the background in the tram tower photo. Yes, even more of your tax dollars at work.